27 Jan What is TikTok: Interview with Alessandro Bogliari, CEO of The Influencer Marketing Factory
1. Do you have tips for those looking to get famous/attract followers on TikTok?
Of course, here are some basics:
- Find ways to add the duet feature in your TikTok videos more often. It is a great way to engage with other creators and have fun!
- Use popular songs, it will help to get the attention of viewers
- Hashtags are the heart of TikTok, and what drive the platforms most engagement.
- You have to stay consistent and persistent to make it on TikTok.
- In order to find out what quality content means to your brand on TikTok, you first have to put out quantity posts. SO POST DAILY.
- Asking questions is the best way to give your audience a chance to be apart of your content, and help you make the right content they want to see.
- The sound feature on TikTok is what makes it so unique to other apps!
2. How do influencers make money on TikTok? How does it compare to Instagram?
A TikToker can make money during lives (viewers can donate coins that can be then used to withdraw real money on your local currency) or also thanks to influencer marketing campaigns and sponsorship (pretty similar to Instagram). The big difference between TikTok and Instagram when it comes to influencer marketing is the way to promote something: usually, Instagram is more a hard-selling platform (direct sell) while instead on TikTok the influencer soft-sell thew product through a funny or entertaining video.
3. TikTokers are usually younger demographic, the “Gen Z’ers”— how does that affect sponsorships/ads?
Young age can have pros and cons: the pros are that Gen Z owns completely TikTok and they know what is cool, what is trendy, what can become viral so you have to trust them. One the cons, instead, is that at a young age you are not yet a professional and you don’t really know how to manage a business opportunity.
4. How can companies use influencers to promote businesses? What would be a successful example of an influencer doing this now?
Music labels and apps works well on TikTok when it comes to influencer marketing activations. For example, we are working with great music labels such as Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music Group and with amazing apps as Ablo. We created a storytelling and a hashtag challenge that became viral in every single influencer marketing campaign.
5. How do you explain TikTok to a company that doesn’t understand what it is?
TikTok is a remix of cultures, memes and meta-memes. You have to know Reddit, Vine (RIP), references to tv shows and music from different ages in order to fully understand it. It’s an app that is not easy to fully comprehend if you are used only to Instagram, let’s say. TikTok is a great place where it happens that from one original and creative video, you can have a domino effect of thousands of duets and remix that will combine together what is happening on the news (and on Twitter) with funny dances and weird sketches.
6. Do you see it surpassing Instagram in popularity? Does it have long-term potential?
Definitely. Instagram is now something from the past. Gen Z doesn’t like any more fake people pretending to be rich and flexing every day on social media. They want to be accepted for who they are, and TikTok allows you that.
7. Do you have examples of TikTok influencers/celebrities using the platform the right way? What is it about their platforms that work for users?
Not really. They are using it mostly as Instagram stories without understanding that TikTok is definitely different. Traditional celebrities are not digital natives and for that reason, they do not really adapt to new social media.
8. Can you explain how users become overnight sensations? For example, someone like a Charli D’Amelio.
Mostly thanks to the algorithm of TikTok that pushes video contents of users with not necessarily too many followers to the For You Page that will be seen by millions of people.
9. Why do you think TikTok blew up in popularity so quickly?
A huge marketing investment from parent company Bytedance and the need for a new social media after the end of the Vine era that could become an alternative to Instagram and YouTube. Also, the TikTok community is so different from any other social media: it’s inclusive and fresh, that’s great because you really feel part of something and not just a random person on a platform.